Fusion Snacks {CtBF}

In a book filled with many winners, David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen seldom disappoints. Working my way through the entire book with my friends from Cook the Book Fridays is a mostly delicious adventure. Each recipe offers a new technique, a new flavor combination, or a new twist on an old favorite. There’s something new to learn with every challenge.

The name of this week’s recipe Buckwheat Rolls with Seaweed Butter is tantalizingly exotic. The buckwheat galettes provide a foundation of French-ness for an Asian compound butter made with seaweed sheets, aka nori.

It isn’t a difficult recipe. Mixing the batter for the galettes (or savory crêpes) needs no special equipment beyond a bowl and a whisk.

Cooking the galettes is a bit tricky, but I was more successful this time than when we made the buckwheat crêpes with ham, cheese, and egg last year. For the seaweed butter, I used some Trader Joe’s roasted seaweed snacks I had on-hand. They toast up easily with a few waves over a gas flame before being mashed into softened butter.

The most difficult part was spreading the butter onto the galettes before rolling them in preparation for a final crisping in the pan. Once crisped on both sides, the rolls are sliced into bite-sized pieces for nibbling.

The verdict: Ick! This was a flop. Neither Howard or I liked these at all. They had so much potential, but despite the interesting list of ingredients, they were rather tasteless. We didn’t even finish them. Boo! On the positive side, this is only the second recipe we’ve made from this book that I consider to be a failure (the other one was Panisse Puffs). And so, I look forward to the next recipe the group takes on.

I’ll bet that my Cook the Book Fridays friends enjoyed this more than we did, so you can check out their links here.

I love the Ick expression, my thoughts exactly. I tasted just one slice and the rest were deep sixed. I actually do like the Buckwheat crepes, they make for a nice lunch or dinner with the right filling and sides.

You totally hooked me with that post!!! Hahaha! I didn’t get around to these, but wasn’t super appealing either. Loved you post though! Hope you are having a lovely fall evening in your neck of the woods!!

Okay, Betsy, I haven’t gotten to these and think I will skip entirely. I actually really enjoyed the buckwheat galettes that we made earlier. Think I will stick to that. Really did love your blog post this week – telling it like it is! I am taking the month of October off, leaving me time to focus on packing away my condo for winter rentals and my trip ahead. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. (Have just finished reading Sinclair Lewis’ “Main Street” and am now reading “What Happened.” Thought those two were a good combo. Looking forward to re-examining your bookshelves and getting some book ideas from you.)